Not quite sure I'm liking Stargate Universe so far. There's definitely something... wrong about Rush. And I do hope they revisit the notion that somebody tipped off the Lucian Alliance.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
I like it quite a bit. It has the feel that Atlantis did at first, only even more urgent and trapped-like-a-rat-y. I only hope they don't end up getting a connection back to Earth like Atlantis did and ruining what was for me the whole point of the series...
I think Rush is *supposed* to have something wrong with him.
Posted by HopefulNebula (Member # 1933) on :
I have no intention of watching this show. I was leery about it before, and my dad was always the Stargate person anyway (though I watched SG-1 to see Claudia Black in pigtails). But what tipped it for me was (ok, going to add spoiler space here)
SERIOUSLY. There are so many kinds of wrong in that, I don't even know where to start.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Yep. That pretty much says it all.
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Response to $ $ $ $ $
How do they bring someone aboard the Destiny? Aren't they cut off from everyone else? That right there tells you they must make contact with Earth. However, ties back to the SGC are likely to be limited since all the sets were turned into Icarus Base.
I don't have cable, but I'll be ordering the DVDs.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
While I thought the story was at least enjoyable, I find the series lacks originality. Being separated light-years from Earth isn't original. At times I thought they were trying be like nu-BSG, there were some BSG-like zoom ins and shaky cam. And searching for the "one true nerd" to save the galaxy/ do something important through medium of video games, did TPTB think no one else but themselves saw The Last Starfighter?
Edit:Interestingly enough, the character of Claire Bennett from Heroes is temporarily going to be a lesbian. Guess there must be a severe outbreak of orientation swapping in TV Land.
Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
quote:Originally posted by Aban Rune: How do they bring someone aboard the Destiny? Aren't they cut off from everyone else?
Rush has a briefcase that he claims contains Ancient communication stones (the same sort that allowed O'Neil and Homer Simpson to see each others' lives, and that allowed Daniel's and Vala's consciousnesses to travel to the Ori galaxy). Rush also claims that he's already used one to get in touch with O'Neil and that O'Neil put him in charge.
However, Rush seemed pretty intent on not letting anybody use them to verify that. In fact, he seemed pretty intent on not letting anybody even see them.
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
"You asked for a case." "A case with 4 stones in it! Not one or two or three but four! What the hell am I supposed to do with an empty case?" "We are warriors. Not merchants." "BUT YOU CAN STILL COUNT!"
Sorry.
Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
Well somebody watched Battlestar Galactica. (And you know what? That's not a bad thing to shoot for.) I think I kind of liked it. Pretty good music. There certainly were some bad-archetype over-simplified-character problems (and some horrendously underexplained tech-wizardry (sans the fun of Rodney McKay's manic ego)), I will definitely be tuning in for more episodes. One ep in, and while there has been some rocky stuff, I did make it through first season Atlantis, and let's not talk about B5.
Kind of cool to see some our Stargate heroes of olde in guest spots. Not sure what was up with Diamond Lou being in there. I too liked the hint that the Lucien alliance got tipped. Curious to see who our baddies will be. Maybe something with enough make-up that we can have Chris Heyerdahl again?
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
I'm rather hoping for a "no baddies" show. The SG franchise has this nasty habit of hyping up a new big bad to such gargantuan, unstoppable proportions that when they do inevitably stop them it all seams a little too easy.
This time round I think (read: hope) the focus will be more on character conflict and a little bit of old fashioned exploration and wonder.
As for the stones, well we did actually see Rush use one to take over wots-iz-face science blokey. As for all of Rush's shifty behaviour, it looks like they're setting him up as an almost Baltar like antagonist, though I'm going to go out on a limb and call red herring on that.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
I liked it. A good change up to the ol' formula, with a much cleaner slate to start with than Altantis had. My (mostly tech-related) notes:
- The Destiny, so far, has a great "steampunk" look to it that makes it look old and dirty without really BEING old and dirty. The look is unlike Atlantis, but seeing as the construction of the two are separated by at LEAST several hundred thousand years there's plenty of time for the Ancient design ethic to change.
- Despite being a basically symmetrical design, the Destiny has various greeblies which are not so. Most interesting is the placement of the two shuttles on the port and centerline, with a dome of some sort on the starboard area where you'd think the shuttle should be.
- We don't know what that dome was other than that it looks like a large empty space with a hole in the actual dome. They're not getting in there anytime soon; in fact I think that they won't find the bridge, engineering, sickbay or any other "typical" starship sets you'd see on other shows for a while. This is good because it potentially allows the show to "discover" new sets on occasion if/when they find the resources to do repairs, keeping things fresh-ish on the design side.
- On that note, they seem to have put some forethought into WHERE certain sets are on the ship as there's an external visual reference. We see the dome, the damaged shuttle, and the forward observation lounge all in the same area... We don't know where the quarters, control room (or whatever it's called where Wallace and Rush spend most of the time tapping buttons), or Kino room (which looks to be an away team prep room) are. They're certainly all clustered in the same area of the ship we've seen so far, which is centered on their gate room, itself probably somewhere in the central raised "spine" of the ship.
- We do see weapons turrets of some sort... I doubt that we'd see them in use anytime soon, either. However, it does mark a change from Atlantis which seemed to rely on drone weapons exclusively.
- The most distinguishing single feature of the exterior is probably the pyramid-shaped block off the central back. It's got lots of windows, so I'm guessing crew quarters or the bridge or something, but IMO they're not up there yet.
- The Destiny shuttles look identical from the outside. The interior set shows that they have a crew of five plus seating for twelve passengers.
- How big is the Destiny? Not as big as Atlantis for sure, though it's larger overall than a Daedalus-class ship. Almost anticlimactic, really - I was hoping for it to be almost as large as Atlantis, but certainly larger than any other ship we've seen before. From the looks of it, it would still be smaller than most Goa'uld ships.
- Oh, speaking of Daedaluses and Ha'takses: it certainly was convenient that the shiny new USS George Hammond (Colonel Samantha Carter, CO) had no Asgard beam weapons to cut the Lucian Alliance fleet to shreds. I've seen discussion already that "Air" happens mere weeks after the Atlantis finale... If that's true, then the rest of the Earth fleet isn't in that great shape following the Wraith superhive ship attack. Following the SGC track record, I guess it makes sense for the new Hammond to be sent out on a milk run to a secret base relatively close to home without all her systems operational (Odyssey and Korolev were launched before they were ready as well).
- They re-established contact with Earth a lot quicker than I thought they would - spoilers suggested they'd find an Ancient communications device on board early on, but it turns out they brought a homemade version WITH them in the first place. They didn't explicitly SAY so, but I'm guessing that when the Hammond detected the stargate functional but that they didn't gate to Earth, they dropped Dr. Lee in a chair next to their active other end and told him to wait for someone to pick up the phone.
Shorter notes:
- Hey! Walter's been re-assed to the Pentagon?
- On Icarus base (which is a re-dress of the old SGC sets), everyone had the Atlantis-style earwigs, which obviously don't work on the Destiny.
- Ona Grauer plays Col. Young's wife. She's best known as the frozen-Ancient-hot-chick that SG-1 found in Antactica a while back.
- Carter reports twelve confirmed dead with 80+ unaccounted for - this presumably makes up the initial crew of the Destiny.
- If the Destiny was sent out unmanned, why are her CO2 scrubbers full of black caviar crap?
- They say the ship looks like it's been through a battle. Hm, perhaps the ship has had a crew before at some point? The Ancients DO make stuff to last...
- Pet theory of the week: Rush lost his wife and wants to ascend as a way out of his life.
More in head... Need to watch it again, which I think will be pretty enjoyable to do. Looking forward to the third part!
Mark
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
quote:- If the Destiny was sent out unmanned, why are her CO2 scrubbers full of black caviar crap?
I think they said the compound had simple broken down and decayed due to extreme age, not through continuous use.
Posted by Josh (Member # 1884) on :
I also saw Major Marks was now serving on board the Hammond - Man that guy gets transferred around a lot.
Anyway, the premiere held a lot of promise. Certainly Dr Rush is already showing the more gray tone of the characters rather than the typical good/evil archetypes.
Also, what was up with the Icarus base uniforms? They didn't appear to be Air Force despite several Air Force personnel serving there. Maybe Homeworld security has it's own operational division now and post officers outside of Earth?
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Personally, I think it would be cool if, at some point, they find out there have been other people who have found the ship and set up shop there in the past. I mean Destiny has been around for a *really* long time. Who says the Earthers have to have been the first to get aboard?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Major Marks has been on EVERY USAF starship since the Prometheus at some point. He just can't get a break to unpack - he's been living out of his duffel bag for four years!
I'm guessing that a sci-fi series needs cooler uniforms than standard BDUs. No worries, since the SGC has been operating with nonstandard uniforms since the beginning (also Atlantis, where Sheppard had his own spectrum of outfits). The Icarus Base patch DOES say "United States Air Force" on it, which is a switch from the SGC type of patches. Also, everyone seems to have a name on their outfit for a change.
Finally, not a P-90 in sight. I love it.
Mark
Posted by Sean (Member # 2010) on :
quote:Originally posted by Reverend: I'm rather hoping for a "no baddies" show.
Yeah...it would be nice to have them deal with themselves for a while. Also, if they were to come into contact with a hostile race, they probably wouldn't last long. I doubt they brought more ammo for their weapons than what they were carrying with them, which would be (judging by the g-36 rifles they carry), to be around 120-150 rifle rounds per person, and maybe 30 or 40 pistol rounds. Maybe they'll find a way to trade for new weapons, or something. WHo knows. It adds to the overall "We're stranded out here, come and attack us" vibe I am gtting from the show.
Actually, at first, "Oh my god, this is Stargate: Voyager!" ran through my head. Hopefully that proves to be false. I just started watching SGA a few weeks ago, starting at the beginning with the help of the internet, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Hopefully this is just as fun to watch.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
I like the idea of Homeworld Security having their own operational arm, made up of personnel from various military and intelligence branches. The fact that the *entire* Stargate program was under USAF jurisdiction always seemed a bit odd to me, though I can't explain why (and it does make sense for the ships to be USAF and not Navy imho). They did have marines in the SGC, but never any mention of Army (that I can remember).
Posted by OverRon (Member # 2036) on :
Liking it so far... although I did get a very big nuBSG image in my head with that camera work and the whole tone of that episode.
And what's with the Hammond and no beam weapons? I was expecting them to tear those Lucian ships apart. I had a mental conversation along the lines of:
"O'Neil: You left spacedock without an Asgard beam weapon? Carter: It doesn't arrive until Tuesday."
$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $
And WTF was that about the Senator sacrificing himself to save the air, not long after they find a crap load of FLOATING REMOTE CONTROL CAMERAS. Was I the only one thinking of sticking a pencil or something on the end of one those Kino's, and just floating it in there and close the door? If a nearly dead Senator can be taught to close it in a few seconds, surely the same could have been done with one of those Kino's by remote.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Probably just didn't occur to them. Also possible that the controls have a tactile response so you DON'T do stuff like that by accident.
I think they're trying hard to communicate that the people here are NOT the do-anything superhero geniuses you'd find in SG-1 or Atlantis. These ARE the guys on the SG teams that get swallowed by black holes, or who populate the offworld research stations that get eaten by bugs. Would Carter or McKay have been able to fix the door or think of the kino solution? Probably. Not these guys, and that's the point.
Regarding USAF jurisdiction: The US armed forces in real life already places ANYTHING space-military related in the hands of USAF, like spy satellite control, the Star Wars program, etc. The SG program has always been a logical extension of that, with O'Neill and the original motion picture team being from USAF special forces. It's possible that Homeworld Security is growing as a result of SG program, and now oversees the SGC, starship programs, and so on. Sorta like NASA, except under military jurisdiction.
Mark
Posted by Josh (Member # 1884) on :
I have to watch it again, but was the entire Icarus base a privately funded project by the Senator?
Seems a little strange to me that anyone would invest their own money in discovering the purpose of the 9th chevron which is neither a goal obtainable in a foreseeable amount of time or something you could get your money back on.
Alternatively, if he's only funding the program and not the facility itself, it's odd that we don't see a larger assortment of nationalities now that the IOA is pushing international cooperation.
Also, when the planet exploded, shouldn't that have caused the wormhole to disengage? When Tanith (Methos from Highlander or w/e his name was)crashed an Al'kesh into the gate it caused it to shut down the wormhole and trapped Teal'c. I'd assume an exploding planet would have nothing short of the same effect.
Side note, it was nice seeing Carter in charge of the Hammond and Daniel on the training video, although I cringed at seeing for the millionth time stock footage of the gate opening in the pilot when there were tarps laying all over the place. Seriously guys, you've had a standing set of the gate room for 13 years, shoot another plate of it!
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
quote:The SG program has always been a logical extension of that, with O'Neill and the original motion picture team being from USAF special forces.
Actually, O'Neil in the movie was a marine.
I wonder how the military is going to explain the mysterious disappearance/death of a US Senator. That's pretty high profile, right there. Plane crash, I guess, but that's a sizable cover-up. But then, apparently not only do Senators get to know about the gate program, so do their relatively low-level aides/daughters.
Hm. They implied that Eli's memory would have been wiped had he not cooperated. Aside from being a moderately creepy and disturbing thing for the heroes of the story to do, it might explain why the gate program is still a secret. Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
A marine? O'Neil's uniform looked awfully USAF to me...
Marine uniforms are green, no? I've watched JAG...
Mark
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
I can't speak as to uniforms, nor can I find the source I read that at. May have been one of the non-SG1 Stargate novels. Claim withdrawn. Posted by Josh (Member # 1884) on :
In the briefing room scene of the Stargate film he wore the USAF uniform, so that pretty much settles it.
Posted by StationMaster (Member # 63) on :
Everyone ducks for cover...
Okay - been a huge fan on the whole Stargate collection. Atlantis was the lost series which sucked because of the poor writing, not the premise. And it died too early, and the Wraith won (think about it - Nobody to stop their plans), and so many cool ideas wasted. I watched Universe last night with anticipation. Half way through the second episode, I actually nearly turned off. General theme - BSG vs Voyager. Battlestar Galactica was a great series, but probably drove a lot of people to killing themselves as it was also so dark and depressing. Voyager... well, that was dark and depressing also, but for different reasons. What we have here is a shades of grey series, where they are trying to get back home. And we know that for the next 5 or less seasons of the show, that is the goal. Great - spoils the idea of "what they going to do this week". Doctor Rush... What a dull, meak, boring little man he is. Hardly says anything during the first two episodes and what he does say makes little sense. "this could be the most important discovery since the stargate itself"? Errr. No that would be Atlantis. The Destiny is an inferior model - its Ancient compared to other more recent Ancient stuff like Atlantis. The collected Knowledge of the Ancients can easily be accessed through the Atlantis Database or the Head Devices (assuming they found more). And thats the recent stuff. Not stuff from an era where the Ancients were steampunk. So why is the ship so important aside from the very cool FTL drive it has... which begs questions as to why later model ancient stuff did not use the same technology... So what is so impantant about it? Aside from perhaps it has a list of stargates in other galaxies. big whoop. The cast. I think I can sum this up simply as dull. I did not connect with one of them. They could have all got sucked out in to space and I would not have minded. The only one that did stir emotion was the guy with obvious mental problems who really should never have got through SGC screening because he has pyschotic tendencies. I was actually rooting for him to get sucked out in to space. The Kino thing was bad too with the door. I was sitting there grumbling under my breath about the whole use it to shut the door. And I know they are not super geniuses, but and this is a big but. They are morons for not thinking of it. And do I really want to watch a series about morons? Not really. Stargate has always been about wonder, and discovery. Challenge the fans with extreme and fantastic plots. To have the fans shouting at the TV because the characters in it are thick is not a great way to start a series. I sincerely hope the writers realise this as a few more thick mistakes like this, and the fans will rapidly abandon the series and it may just last one or two seasons.
The attack was also pointless. The Hammond was supposed to be a fully functional ship - no beam weapons? And its taking a beating from three mother ships. That is a bad mark on Sam's record. Dont rewrite what we are capable of.
And finally, the thing that spoilt it all for me at least. Knock knock. hello. Door opens to the guy who I did not recognise. Conversation goes on and I am sitting there, looking at this general, thinking to myself... That guy is familiar... who is he? The shades are obscuring his face... Only later at the pentagon, I actually realise that that General was RDA... Jack is "The" hero. And here was General Desk job fatty Jack. He saved the world time and time again, got promoted, and put on quite a few pounds. I remember Jack saving the world. Now all I see is Jack with Jowles. This is no disrespect to RDA - but I would much rather have remember Save the world Jack as he was.. bad move again. Some things should just have been left as they were. Even his lines were dead, rahter than dead pan.
A depressing, unimpressing, overhyped and flawed start to what could be a very misrable and depressing series. All writers know first impressions count... and this is not a good start. I seem to remember another series like this... what was it called... Secondprise?? Cant remember...
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Secondprise. You're very clever.
It's the pilot. Of course they'll work out bugs.
Posted by StationMaster (Member # 63) on :
Well, it was what we were calling it after suffering our way throught two seasons... And I honestly hope they do work out the bugs. As always I am being my usual subjective self on this. I am a huge fan of all the series but so far, the balance of comedy vs action seems to have been replaced with a poor shell of BSG with a hint of Stargate and someone forgot to bring the comedy bag... There is potential, just not entirely sure where.
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Who's "we"? I liked the first two seasons of Enterprise.
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
I don't know why, but I keep getting visions of the ship from "Event Horizon" in some of the scenes. Probably just the lighting and moodiness but the door locks kinda hit me that way.
I hope they don't turn Rush into a Doctor Zachary Smith imitation. None of the other characters, including Eli really stand out. We'll see.
Posted by FawnDoo (Member # 1421) on :
I can see where you are coming from with that - the Destiny and the Event Horizon both had large aft structures, with an elongated neck section at the front so I suppose they do have features in common. Wonder how long it will take Space Begbie to start clawing out people's eyes and quoting Latin?
Personally I really liked the show - for once it was good to see a crew who weren't composed of military heroes and genius scientists. They don't always work out the smartest way to solve a problem, which is nice to see. I hope to see more of Eli, and really want them to keep Rush's motivations ambiguous for as long as possible. Making him an out-and-out scheming villain would be boring.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
I *did* like it. But now I'm reading all these very good points about why it sucked and wondering, "Did I just *think* I liked it because it was Stargate?" Bah. Sometimes being a nerd sucks a little.
Posted by FawnDoo (Member # 1421) on :
So you liked it, read that others didn't, and now aren't sure if you liked it or not? Is this nerd peer pressure?
I'm interested at the mentions of the automated factory ships that the Destiny is following, the ones that are constructing Stargates and seeding them on planets throughout the galaxies. If they were looking to introduce an ongoing set of villains, wouldn't those ships be a tempting target for the bad guys?
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Daniel Butler: I *did* like it. But now I'm reading all these very good points about why it sucked and wondering, "Did I just *think* I liked it because it was Stargate?" Bah. Sometimes being a nerd sucks a little.
Welcome to my world- I first said that the new Trek was a "good" movie....but after watching it a couple of times on DVD, I have to qualify my comment as "Trek dehydration".
Posted by HopefulNebula (Member # 1933) on :
Holy shit, it's out on DVD now? I really have been out of it since July.
Anyway. Done derailing the thread now.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
No, let me continue derailing it. What is this phantom Star Trek DVD everyone seems to have?
Posted by Josh (Member # 1884) on :
The preview/screener DVD got leaked about a month ago as these things usually do. It's downloadable from the usual torrent sites.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Download a 4gb iso? Bugger that, I'd rather buy it when it comes out.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
Ha ha, someone doesn't have a 10mbit cable connection. *reclines in phatpipity comfort*
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Nope. Broadband phoneline. I'll upgrade to cable when and if it becomes worth the expense.
Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
I rather enjoyed the pilot. And the continuation I enjoyed, as well. Mayhaps I should make a thread...
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